Let's take the example of a lower league football ground. They probably only use the floodlights once or twice a month for actual matches, but are they used outside of this? What about offices and training and stuff (if all that happens on the same site)? How many staff does the average lower league club have and do they work 9-5 mon-fri at the ground?

and there would have been other games going on there in the evenings too. Sometimes training sessions are held at the ground, or behind closed doors friendlies. Also local teams might use the ground for cup finals, school cup finals etc.

We hired the pitch at Carrow Road for a game in May. There wasn't a premium for our game which was in the evening under floodlights, so I guess it'd be a couple of hundred quid to run, not crazy amounts of money.